Free Custom «Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria» Essay Paper

The most alarming issue in the modern is the hardship encountered in treatment of infections caused by bacteria due to resistance of bacteria to antibiotics. There are various categorization of antimicrobial agents defined their action mechanism. The mechanisms of antimicrobial agents include; protein synthesis inhibition and cell wall synthesis interference. Other mechanism include; nucleic acid synthesis interference. Bacterial resistance act on the principle that they block the designated site of drugs thus bringing about interference. It is of essence to look at the depth of the consequences brought about by antimicrobial agents. This paper examines the consequences of bacterial resistance.

The fight against upcoming contagious diseases has been of much concern due to the rise of antibiotics which hinder the fight against diseases caused by organism such as bacteria. This has influenced the life expectancy since the fight against infectious disease is difficult. The health of the public has been widely affected by the upcoming microbes that cause diseases and which have grown resistant to antibiotic drug. This has been of much concern in the twentieth century. Some of the diseases which have become resistant to antibiotic drugs include; pneumonia, infections of wound, gonorrhea, septicemania amongst other contagious disease such as infections of the ears which mostly occur in children. It has become hard to contain these diseases with antibiotics since they have become resistant. The most alarming thing in this case, is since most of the microbes that cause diseases have adopted some mechanism in order to resist antibiotics drugs. By resisting these drugs it is hard to come up with drugs which can cure those diseases. Some other contributing factors to antibiotic resistant include; misuse of drugs, unnecessary usage of existing antibiotics and the continuous use of drugs. This creates an environment in the body which enables bacteria to be resistant. There are existing drugs in agriculture, human and veterinary which contribute to this. It is therefore necessary to take the right dosage of drugs as per the prescription (Clewell D., 2008).

 

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There has been increased usage of antibiotics over the past few decades. High records of usage of antibiotics were recorded in United Sates in the year 1998. Around 2500 tons of antibiotics were used that year. This included antibiotics of human, agriculture and veterinary. Most of the antibiotics were used on agricultural practices. This comes up as a risk to our environment. The environment is widely affected by the continuous usage of antibiotics since the soil organisms are affected. This leads to soil degradation. A lot of antibiotics are used on the farms and other agricultural practices. Such agricultural practices include farm cultivation.

The case of resistant to drugs is widely reported in our hospitals today. It has been alarming in our modern hospitals when some drugs are declared resistant to the diseases they treat. This is not a mere case but has spread all over the world. A good example is the use of penicillin to treat earlier treatable diseases. The drugs which are used for treatment of diseases have been encountered by resistant from the bacteria causing those diseases. There are cases were all the approved drugs can not be used on certain diseases caused by certain organisms. This is because there are organisms which are resistant to almost all drugs which are used for their treatment. Such organisms can only be treated by using toxic drugs or by undertaking experiments to analyze their cause and methodology to be applied. There has been documentation on the various bacterial resistances to drugs. Some bacteria which are documented as having resistance to drugs include staphylococci. These bacteria contribute to mortality. There are studies which have been carried out to aggregate the extremity of bacterial resistance. For instance, there are recent studies which indicate resistance to penicillin. There are also researchers which indicate bacterial resistance to numerous antibiotics. Examples of such bacteria include pneumococci which causes pneumonia.

The continuous development in microbial resistance has raised concern on how to curb bacteria resistance due to economical impact. Our economy has been widely affected by bacterial resistance. This is because new drugs have to be researched to treat those infectious diseases which have become resistant over time. In order to be able to curb bacterial resistance, researches have conducted various studies to unveil new antibiotics. These enable acquiring effective drugs for treatment. It is worthy noting that relevant steps should be taken to contain bacterial resistance. This is because it might be realized that most of the diseases which were earlier treatable are all untreatable due to bacterial resistance. This might be quite alarming to the society at large. Prevention is better than cure and thus necessary steps are vital to contain the scenario.

Scientists have carried out studies to unearth the issue of antibiotics and how antibiotic resistance became a routine in our daily life. Sir Alexander Fleming is amongst the well known scientists who have done much on the field of antibiotics. Amongst the antibiotics discovered by Fleming is penicillin. In his studies, he used a contaminated penicillin mold. In this study, he observed staphylococci inhibition on an agar plate. Fleming discovered bacteria resistance to penicillin since there was mold growth. He was after the search of antibacterial compounds when he discovered the penicillin patch. Subsequent researches have been performed to attribute bacterial resistance to penicillin. It is also of advantage to understand the consequences of antibiotics.

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Antibiotics are mainly used to eliminate bacteria by killing them. They also inhibit the growth of bacteria. There are various antibiotics which are used for several diseases. In the process of eliminating bacteria, some of them adopt mechanism and evade the risk of death. Such bacteria can not be affected by antibiotics. The bacterium which manages to survive upon being introduced to antibiotics is capable of replacing all the other bacteria which have been killed by the antibiotics. They replace them by multiplying. The bacteria which survive after been introduced to antibiotics become resistant upon subsequent introduction to antibiotics. Genetic mutation is one of the ways in which bacteria which were one susceptible to drugs become resistant. The acquired genetic make up may be resistance to the antibiotics thus becoming resistance. The DNA coding for resistance may attribute to resistance to many microbes since they are easily transferable due to their single grouping. DNA coding contributes highly to bacterial resistance to infectious diseases.

Various antibiotics such as nucleic acid and protein exhibit selective toxicity. This occurs by selectively synthesizing bacterial macromolecular. There has been a clinical challenge since 1940s when drugs such as penicillin and chlomphenicol were unveiled. It was first seen as a fantasy towards fighting diseases but the challenge came in with the emergence of strains towards the unveiled antibiotics (Funnell, B. E., and Phillips, G. J). The problem worsened when it was evident that multiple of the unveiled drugs were not effective enough in treating infectious diseases due to bacterial resistance. The strains towards many antibiotics were highly contributed by horizontal gene transfer which is a property of DNA segments. DNA segments are capable of moving from one bacteria cell to another. This means that bacteria resistance to antibiotics increases due to this phenomenon. This poses a challenge of controlling multiplication of such bacteria.

There are various mechanisms through which horizontal gene transfer can occur; transduction, transformation and conjugation. Conjugation is the process through which DNA moves through cell conduct. Whenever cells come in to conduct, there is the transfer of DNA. The release of DNA which is free to be taken up by another bacterial cell which is active is referred to as transformation. Horizontal gene transfer can also take place through this mechanism. On the other hand, transduction involves transfer of DNA through bacterial viruses. There are various studies which have been performed about horizontal gene transfer. This has raised the concern of bacterial species make up. The rapid increase in resistance to bacteria causing diseases has raised much concern. Some of the recent concerns are the resistance in staphylococcus. In analyzing these facts it is also of importance to know how antibiotics are produced.

Microorganism and especially those that are found in the soil are the major sources of antibiotics. Thus, antibiotics are obtained from these organisms. Other sources of antibiotics include genus streptomyces and molds. For instance, penicillin is produced from Penicilium mold. These are amongst the well known producers of antibiotics. A generalized class referred to as bacterions are those antibiotics which are produced by bacteria. Bacterions are substances that are capable of that influence the bacterial world by either killing other bacteria or by introducing competition. Most of these substances acquire inhibitory properties. There are various scholars who have analyzed the importance of various agents found in the soil. Resistance is the mechanism used by bacteria to protect themselves from the agents produced or found in the soil (Walsh, C., 2003). Those bacteria in the soil which do not produce bacteriocins protect themselves through resistance determinants. It is therefore clear that the soil is consisted of antibiotics genes and other substances which are related to them. This is also the scenario with the human body where numerous bacteria can be found. After analyzing the various concepts of bacterial resistance, it is also wise to look in to the mechanism of bacteria resistance.

There are various mechanisms through which bacteria can express resistance to antibiotics. There are certain bacteria that offer resistance to a single antibiotic. The major concern comes in when the properties of resistance are transferred to other bacteria. The spread in this case occurs through selective pressure. This depends on the manner in which bacteria offer resistance. There are cases when organism acquires genes that are concerned with encoding of enzymes (Wright, A. et al., 2006). Enzyme coding is mainly controlled by genetic information. These enzyme encoding genes are involved in destroying antibacterial agent prior to any effect. It may also happen that the antibacterial agent can be extruded from a cell before causing any effect. This is achieved with the aid of efflux pumps. The target site of the antibacterial agent is blocked. There is also the possibility that metabolic pathway may consist of numerous genes. These genes bring about mutation changes.

Mutation and selection are some of the mechanism s through which bacteria may become resistance to antimicrobial agents. It may also happen that bacteria obtain the enzyme coding genes from other bacteria. Bacteria adapt to their environment with antibacterial agents through selection, genetic exchange and mutation. A single mutation in bacteria can be worthwhile to the life of bacteria. This can help bacteria to survive until it acquires other properties to resist antibacterial agents in the subsequent mutations.

After analyzing the issue of bacteria resistance it is also important to look in to why bacteria resistance of concern. In the modern society, bacteria resistance should not be taken for granted. This is because of several reasons. Some of the resistant bacteria which has raised much concern include; Staphylococcus aureus. Some of the reasons why bacterial resistance should not be assumed are because; it leads to treatment failure. This can have severe consequences and mostly to those individual s who are in critical condition. High mortality rate have been reported as a result of bacterial resistance.

In conclusion, bacterial resistance is of much concern due to its consequences. Bacterial resistance occurs when bacteria acquires some immunity against drugs which were earlier used for their treatment. Antibiotics either destroy or kill bacteria. In the case where one bacteria remains not killed, it multiplies and replaces those that have been destroyed. These bacteria contain genetic information which can be transferred to other bacteria through horizontal gene transfer which include; transformation, transduction and conjugation. It is therefore of concern for more researches to be performed to contain the issue of antibiotic resistance since it is very challenging consequences such as mortality.